George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four is often seen as a fictional portrayal of a dystopian future, but when examined, frightening similarities can be found today in modern governments. The braveness required to publish such a political piece in the midst of international turmoil continues to inspire and warn twenty-first century societies of indistinguishable totalitarian governments. Through the political experiences of George Orwell, the components of Soviet governance, and the predictions that continue beyond the year of 1984, Orwell’s novel forever changed the opinions on socialism and totalitarianism, and their existence in around the world today. Nineteen Eighty-four is often used as an arguing piece between political ideologies; however, …show more content…
He did not want the corrupt government of his book to be attributed with the Nazis, rather focused on the corrupt ally, the Soviet Union (Asimov). He was worried as he saw “totalitarianism was already proving dangerously attractive to many on the left, not least intellectuals” (BBC). Many wish that Orwell could have seen the conservatism, which he also hated, that followed the fall of Stalin, then maybe his support of true leftist socialism would be apparent. Unfortunately for the literary world, Orwell did not live past the 1950’s to see what his proposed future would …show more content…
It could even be argued that “the displacement of the story is much more geographical than temporal” (Asimov). With little technology and crude social environments, Orwell’s futuristic ideas were not intended for the scientific world (Kellner). While he imagined the telescreen before televisions could even be conceived, he did not consider the fact of human labor involved to watch every citizen. Then there is the paradox of the “observers” having to be watched, since no one is suspicion free (Asimov). Clearly the technical aspect of Orwell’s novel was limiting because there is no suggestion of machines watching citizens, which to some extend occurs today. Although, he predicted correctly that computers would not be a part of tyrannies, for today, the most technical nations are also the most